The Chiefs are expected to sign Welsh rugby star Louis Rees-Zammit, a participant in the NFL’s International Player Pathway program. But not every player in that program can sign right now.
Three players in the International Player Pathway program are eligible to be selected in the 2024 NFL draft, and can only sign with teams if they go undrafted.
The league office tells PFT that Rees-Zammit is a free agent because he did not attend college and is more than four years removed from high school (or his high school equivalent). He technically could have been drafted during his fourth year out of high school, although at that time he had never expressed any interest in quitting rugby for the NFL and there was no reason for any team to consider drafting him.
Eagles offensive tackle Jordan Mailata is, like Rees-Zammit, an international rugby player who decided to join the NFL’s International Player Pathway program. But Mailata was eligible for the draft in 2018, when the Eagles took him in the seventh round. That’s because the year he entered the NFL’s International Player Pathway program happened to be his fourth year out of high school.
Travis Clayton of England, Bayron Matos of the Dominican Republic and Jotham Russell of Australia are the three players in this year’s International Player Pathway program who are in their fourth years out of high school, so those three all could be drafted. The other players in the program are, like Rees-Zammit, free agents.
Although NFL practice squads are limited to 16 players, the league will grant a 17th practice squad spot to any NFL team that signs a player from the International Player Pathway program and puts him on the practice squad. It’s likely that multiple players from the program will be on practice squads in 2024. Rees-Zammit, who has been the most-discussed player from the program, may even make the Chiefs’ active roster.
2024-03-28 18:29:23
#players #NFL #international #program #drafted #Louis #ReesZammit #free #agent
